Is it a war against terrorism or a war for terrorism?

The Law of War in the War against Terrorism

Misreading Islamist Terrorism: the ‘‘war against Terrorism’’ and Just-war Theory

The Bush administration’s military war on terrorism is a blunt, ineffective, and unjust response to the threat posed to innocent civilians by terrorism. Decentralized terrorist networks can only be effectively fought by international cooperation among police and intelligence agencies representing diverse nation-states, including ones with predominantly Islamic populations. The Bush administrati...

Re-thinking Terrorism in Light of a War on Terrorism

The opinions and conclusions expressed in this written testimony are the author's alone and should not be interpreted as representing those of RAND or any of the sponsors of its research.

A strategic analysis of the war against transnational terrorism

We study a two stage game in which a transnational terrorist organization interacts with an arbitrary number of countries that may differ in their political or economic power, their military effectiveness, the benefit from cooperating against terrorism and the value they assign to damage. Only a subset of countries that emerges endogenously takes proactive measures to fight the terrorist, while...

The ` War Against Terrorism ' : A Public Relations Challenge

This article examines the relationship between warfare and the media, arguing that both terrorists and conventional warfare planners in the Pentagon factor communications and public relations into their planning. In this regard, the article sketches out how the Pentagon developed a new genre of ‘public relations-ized’ warfare – warfare planned, not only as a military exercise, but as a televisu...